Help on mechanics/abilities for a brainwashing cult?

[flamewolf393]

The overarcing story in my new game i am running focuses on taking out the cult of a new god that has made himself know. He is a god of depravity, and refuses to take willing followers. He only takes people that have been broken or brainwashed.

My main question. What kind of magical abilities could I give the casters of the cult? There are very few options for long term/permanent domination of a person/creature. Obviously I dont want lower level casters just casting dominate or thrall, but I would like something where repeated castings, or ritual castings can create permanent affects.

Any other ideas on how to run the cult are welcome as well. I am still somewhat in the brainstorming session on it.

[Sith_Happens]

Charm Person sets the target's attitude towards you to Friendly.

Hypnotism treats the target's attitude towards you as two steps friendlier for the purpose of a single request made of them.

Do the math.:smallamused:

[flamewolf393]

hypnotism: "...request must be brief and reasonable..."

What could you say to someone to make joining an evil cult of depravity seem reasonable to your average good aligned person?

Also run into hit dice limits fairly quickly on these two spells.

[Urpriest]

For a cult of depravity, you may want to employ drug addiction, and its associated mechanics in the BoVD, as a way of keeping people under control.

There are probably low-ish level ways to deal Wisdom damage, which helps make someone more suggestible.

[eggynack]

Thrallherd is a solid option, granting a bunch of free believers who are fiercely loyal, along with mind control powers. You could also toss some psionics in amongst the believers, as your casting majig. For bonus points, make the thralls thrallherds, and make your cult massive.

[Jack_Simth]

You have a few options:

For long-term Domination, check out Libris Mortis of all places, specifically the Necrotic Cyst spells, specifically Necrotic Tumor (Cleric-7, Sor/Wiz-7, requires the caster have the Mother Cyst feat), which makes the subject have to deal with a Suggestion for days/level on a SUCCESSFUL SAVE, and makes them your permanent thrall on a failed save. Of course, they have to have already failed a save vs. Necrotic Cyst at some point in the past, and haven't gotten that spell's effects cleaned up... and that's a second level spell.

Monstrous Thrall (Spell Compendium, Dominion Domain 9) has an obvious typo (duration lists 24 hours/level in the quick blurb, but says permanently dominated in the text body) and fits what you want if you go with the text.

Mindrape (Book of Vile Darkness, Sor/Wiz-9) lets you completely rewrite someone's memories, emotions, opinions, and alignment (but not explicitly skills, feats, class levels, or anything else...) which is one way to make them have already joined and be the sort to stick around. Instant duration.

The Mineralize Warrior spell (Underdark, Sor/Wiz-6) lets you control the target for a year and a day after the spell is cast on them successfully... with a hit die limit based on your caster level.

You may consider custom domains that includes several such options - something like:
Control/Slavery
1:Charm Person/Hypnotism
2:Hideous Laughter/Touch of Idiocy
3:Suggestion/Hold Person
4:Charm Monster/Crushing Despair
5:Mind Fog/Dominate Person
6:Symbol of Persuasion/Geas
7:Mineralize Warrior/Necrotic Tumor (does not require that the target have a Cyst, nor that the caster has a Mother Cyst, but permits a second save a day later to throw it off)
8:Mass Charm Monster / Demand
9:Mindrape/Monstrous Thrall

With special abilities of something like....
Control: Once a day, you can add your Cleric level to the remaining duration of a control effect that is already in place and in effect on a target, as though you had increased it's caster level (so if someone is under the effects of an hours/level Charm Person, the number of hours remaining increases by your Cleric level; if it's a days/level Dominate Person, the remaining duration increases by a number of days equal to your cleric level; and so on). This increase only affects the duration - it does not affect anything else related to caster level, such as range or dispel difficulty.
Slavery: You can designate a creature that you already control by way of a Charm, Domination, or Compulsion effect. The duration of any and all Charm, Domination, and Compulsion effects on that creature ceases to count down. You can change the designation as often as you like, however, you can only have a number of such creatures designated at any given time equal to your Charisma modifier.

... OK, that's maybe a little overpowered. Still, designed based on flavor....

If the minions are none too bright and rather unwise, you could also do something along the lines of making a magic device trap of Dominate Person/Monster that goes off on everyone going through a particular door, with the same orders given by the trap every time. After someone has been forced through some number of times, it'll stick... and of course, you put this trap somewhere that most of the minions will go through on a daily basis (every time they fail a save, the days/level duration resets... if they end up going through it, say, twice a day, well...).




hypnotism: "...request must be brief and reasonable..."

What could you say to someone to make joining an evil cult of depravity seem reasonable to your average good aligned person?

Also run into hit dice limits fairly quickly on these two spells.
The hit die limits don't much matter for the standard cultist. However, the math you missed is based on the Epic Expansion of the Diplomacy Skill (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/skills.htm#diplomacy): Two steps above "Friendly" is "Fanatic", described as "Will give life to serve you" with possible actions listed as "Fight to the death against overwhelming odds, throw self in front of onrushing dragon"

[Urpriest]

Another suggestion: there are redemption rules in BoED. You could probably repurpose them as brainwashing rules, considering that some people already think of them that way.